1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to improvements in inter-computer communications. More particularly, this invention relates to a method, apparatus and article of manufacture which encodes, decodes, receives and transmits inter-computer messages of various formats.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, communications software is specifically developed for a particular application. Such conventional communication software is designed to receive and transmit computer messages in specific, limited formats. In other words, typical software code imbeds the format of computer messages within the code such that the code expects a particular format for any data to be received or transmitted.
If a computer message having a different format is received, such conventional software is generally unable to decode or otherwise utilize such differently formatted messages. To accommodate such different formats, the software engineer must rewrite the code to accept the differently formatted message.
Furthermore, after specific messages are coded for an application, most conventional communication software, must be rewritten or otherwise need additional special purpose code to be written for other requirements such as event logging, time stamping, scenario playback, real-time/off-line simulations and marketing demonstrations. In most cases, such as that of at least two radar systems employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), custom software is written for some of those functions. Other functions are deemed too expensive and timely to implement. In this invention, all these functions are built in and ready for deployment.